Grade 6 Lifeskills Programme

By Zodwa Mabusela

A life skills programme was conducted for 144 of the Grade 6 leaners of Silversands Primary School on the 08 November 2017 by Khululeka and the Eersterivier Department of Social Development. A Khululeka staff member started by briefly giving introduction of Khululeka and what it does at the school to support children that suffered grief and loss. The topics covered on this life skills programme were Leadership and Making Good Life Choices. Two social workers from the Eersterivier office were invited as guest speakers on the programme. They started off by doing games to engage with the children and to get the children to relax and be free to participate. One social worker started by telling her own personal story; what she went through as a child and how it influenced her choices in life. She told them about what has led her to be the successful person that she is today. When she was done with her story she allowed children to ask questions. More and more children showed interest by asking a lot of questions. They also spoke about drugs and how that leads children into addiction and what other alternatives they have.

In interacting with the children, the social workers also enlightened them about dangers of keeping quiet when one does something wrong to them, or when they know of a child who has had a wrong thing done to them. This was said obviously after the children themselves indicated that sometimes they would take drugs because of the wrong things that other people do to them.

The programme was a very successful one. All children enjoyed it, and this displayed in the way of interaction and the types of questions they asked. At the end of the programme, most children came to the Khululeka staff member to ask her to enrol them for the following year’s Khululeka Grief and Loss Support Group.